WordPress website advantages and disadvantages

Like everything else in the world, WordPress has its pros and cons that should be considered before creating a website on this platform. What are the pros and cons of WordPress?
The advantages of using WordPress as a website building platform deserve a special text that will show why you should use WordPress, but also clearly show its disadvantages. Here is a summary of the benefits of using WordPress on your website.

WordPress – basic information

A common misconception about WordPress is that it is merely a blogging platform. Sure, WordPress started out as a blogging tool, but it has evolved over the years and is now a powerful website development platform and a solid content management system (CMS).

WordPress is available in English and different languages. In addition, an extensive knowledge base created by the WordPress community is available on the Internet in both languages: dedicated forums, blogs, free courses, lessons on YouTube, etc.

WordPress gives you full control over your website. As a WordPress user, however, you don’t need to be a web designer or developer. In fact, most people start using WordPress with no prior knowledge of web design.

Advantages of using WordPress

First of all, WordPress is easy to use and very flexible, which is why you can create different types of websites with WordPress. Ease of use, functionality, intuitiveness,… are the reasons why WordPress has become so popular.

Simplicity

WordPress is the most intuitive content management system ever created in the world. The administration panel is clear and well planned. Both settings management and updates are understandable even to a beginner. Content management does not require coding skills. WordPress is easy to customize with themes and plugins.

Ease of use

WordPress is easy to use and this has made it famous. Contrary to Drupal or Joomla, for example, WordPress does not require knowledge of PHP or HTML. WordPress has a built-in feature for installing plugins and themes (templates) that you can use in a very simple way and thanks to them change the functionality of the website. You select the appropriate theme or plug-in and click to install it.

Functionalities

The WordPress engine is developed by volunteer developers from around the world, and in addition, thousands of professional companies, web developers and freelancers create new themes and plugins every day, which are available in free or commercial versions.

WordPress has a lot of necessary built-in functions and can be easily adapted to your needs. WordPress is especially known for its plugins and themes that allow you to easily turn WordPress into a company website, online store, or even an extensive portal.

Intuitive management

WordPress has extensive text editing options, page menu management, etc. With plugins you can easily add new functionalities. WordPress has a very convenient and intuitive to use Gutenberg editor for placing new content, graphics, videos, category selection, etc.

WordPress Themes

Themes, also known as templates or skins, are responsible for the appearance of your website. Themes are easy to customize as many have their own options panel that allows you to change colors, upload logos, change backgrounds, create sliders, etc.

On the internet you will find free and paid themes that suit websites with different topics. Paid themes come with special support and free updates.

Plugins

WordPress has several thousand free plugins available in the so-called repository and paid plugins with the support of creators. This gives you access to a huge collection of extensions, add-ons and plugins with which you can develop your website. This huge access to professional plugins allows you to do whatever you want, often without knowing complicated code.

Thanks to plugins, WordPress is a platform with basically unlimited possibilities. You can add extra custom functionality as your WordPress site grows with plugins.

Online shop

WordPress in combination with WooCommerce is also a great platform for an online store. WooCommerce is currently the most popular solution for online stores and has the largest e-Commerce market share in the world (25%). It is a platform that is easy to implement, has virtually unlimited possibilities for further expansion, and offers numerous extensions such as payments, shipping, etc.

WooCommerce is a store plugin specially designed to create a WordPress store. Thanks to this, you will gain an e-shop integrated with your website. The WordPress online store is the perfect solution for you if you want to have an online store in addition to a site with a WordPress content management system. WordPress allows you to administer the website and the store from one panel.

Full mobile control

By choosing WordPress as your CMS, you have full control over your website. Every modern WordPress site is a responsive RWD site. Managing the appearance and functions of a WordPress-based website is also extremely simple on mobile devices – tablets and smartphones.

SEO friendly

By design, WordPress is very SEO-friendly. It is safe to say that WordPress likes the Google search engine with a similarity. WordPress is written using high-quality code, which makes Google and other search engines love WordPress. Therefore, WordPress sites tend to rank higher in the Google search engine.

WordPress is created according to SEO standards and is mobile friendly. By choosing this platform, you can be sure that your WordPress website meets the standards necessary for positioning and indexes new entries. Pages in WordPress make SEO activities easier. WordPress likes SEO, and thanks to open source code, developers from all over the world create plugins that facilitate the activities of positioners. One such plugin is Yoast, which turns WordPress into a professional organic SEO platform and will improve the visibility of your website in Google search engine results.

Possibility of optimization

You can make your website very fast and use all SEO best practices to attract new visitors.

Integrations

Due to the popularity of the WordPress platform, almost all important tools and applications from many companies already have integrations available for WordPress. Your marketing software, newsletters, lead generation tool, SEO tools, CRM software will work with WordPress.

No fees

WordPress is completely free and open source. You can download it, install it, and even modify it. WordPress is free software. This means that you are free to download, install, use and modify it according to your needs. Most importantly, the WordPress administration panel reminds you about free system updates and updates to all plugins.

Scalability

WordPress is scalable, meaning one that you will be able to develop in the future. Scalability is the possibility of increasing the scale of the system’s operation and the ability of software or IT systems to operate efficiently in the conditions of a constantly growing number of users. WordPress can be scaled and developed to run with acceptable performance. The expansion can be done by adding more resources, functions and by increasing the number of server processors.

Hosting (server)

WordPress is free, but you need a web domain name and hosting (server) to install it. Thanks to this, WordPress gives you full control over your website. You own and control all files and information stored in the database. You are not affiliated with a hosting company and can move your website anywhere.

WordPress community

WordPress has a large community of users both in Poland and around the world who provide free support by writing on blogs, on discussion forums or in Facebook groups. WordPress primarily has a huge online community.

Cons of using WordPress

WordPress isn’t perfect. Like any other WordPress product, it also has disadvantages that should be kept in mind when choosing this platform for creating a website.

Coding basics

You don’t need to learn coding to use WordPress. However, basic knowledge of HTML and CSS will make your daily website editing much easier. Most novice users acquire these basic skills while using WordPress. Modifying the appearance of a page requires basic knowledge of CSS and HTML, and some modifications to the structure or appearance of a page even require knowledge of PHP.

Security

WordPress, as the most popular website development engine, is equally eagerly attacked and vulnerable to viruses. Therefore, it is important practice to do updates – WordPress, themes and plugins, back-up.

As the website owner, you are responsible for your website. This means that you are also responsible for security, backups, and installing updates. You can automate all of these jobs, but they still require your attention unless you purchase an administration package from a WordPress specialist.

Plugins

Choosing the right plug often requires some knowledge and experience. Some functionality can be added by plugins from different authors, and choosing the right one requires testing.

Performance

Unfortunately, plugins, and especially too many of them, adversely affect the performance of the WordPress website.

Who is WordPress for?

You have already learned the most important advantages and disadvantages of WordPress. So who is the WordPress platform created for? WordPress is recommended especially for individuals and companies as a platform with which they will be able to develop their activities on the Internet in the future.

WordPress is an open system, which allows you to modify the code and adapt it to individual needs. Therefore, it is especially eagerly used by companies focused on conducting stable and professional activities and developing on the Internet.

What websites and companies should choose WordPress:

• companies wishing to use the advanced and professional capabilities of WordPress
• small and medium-sized companies focused on rapid development and growth
• websites that, thanks to effective SEO positioning, want to achieve a competitive advantage
• companies that want to adapt the software to their needs, value high flexibility and new technologies
• websites that see the limitations of website solutions based on dedicated CMSs
• companies that want to avoid complicated HTML pages

Summary

WordPress has advantages and disadvantages like any CMS platform. WordPress is not the only platform on the market, apart from it, there are at least a dozen others. The two most important open source alternatives to WordPress are the Joomla and Drupal platforms.

It is worth knowing the advantages and disadvantages of WordPress and other online platforms at the initial stage of planning and developing your website. Changing to a different platform at a later time will be time-consuming and more expensive than at the beginning.

WordPress is a unique content management system (CMS) worth your interest. The platform also has many other solutions that made it the most-chosen platform for creating websites. Get to know WordPress – read more on WordPress Polska!

If you want to quickly implement a modern, visually attractive website, which you will be able to manage yourself – ask us about your WordPress website!